Report: Buddhist, Hindu populations growing in U.S.

Hindu and Buddhist groups have grown and expanded across the U.S.
following updates to immigration laws in 1965 and 1992, according to a professor who helped compile
data for the 2010 U.S. Religion Census released last week.

Both religions have temples in most states, concentrated in big
cities but absent in smaller cities and rural areas, said Gordon Melton, a professor of American
religious history at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

“Both Buddhists and Hindus, though still relatively small
compared to the large Christian groups, have grown to the point that they are beginning to exert
significant influence on the key issues that most affect their lives,” Melton said.

The census by the Association of Statisticians of American
Religious Bodies offers a look at more than 2,000 active religious groups, from the Amana Church
Society to Zoroastrians.

It shows the Hindu population has grown to about 650,000, while
Buddhists have grown to about 1 million. Melton said highest concentrations of both groups are in
Texas, California, the New York Metropolitan Area, Illinois and Georgia.

About 49 percent of the total population identifies with some faith. Most are Catholics, at
about 19 percent of the population, or Evangelical and Conservative Protestants,
at 16.2 percent.

Latter-day Saint (Mormon) membership grew to about 6 million, 2 percent of the U.S. population,
as it expanded beyond the Mountain states. The Muslim population grew to 2.6 million, with the
majority of Indo-Pakistani background.

The largest Baptist presence is in the South; Protestant churches are strongest in the Midwest;
most Latter-day Saints are found in the Mountain West; and Roman Catholics are most prominent in
the Northeast and Southwest.